Digital-to-analog converters are well known in the art. These devices take a digital input word and output an analog value corresponding to the magnitude of the digital input word. The current-steering-type of DAC provides its analog output as a current value. Thus, as typically configured, a small magnitude digital input word results in a small output current and a large magnitude digital input word results in a correspondingly large output current. Current steering DACs are useful in a plethora of applications, particularly any type of application where digital control is used and an analog output is required. For example, emerging standards for communications systems require DACs with sample rates in the hundreds of millions of samples per second and resolutions of 10-14 bits or more. The sample rate is simply the number of times per unit time period that the DAC looks at a new input and generates a new output. The resolution refers to the size in bits of the digital input word. A one-bit resolution would correspond to only two possible output states. A 14-bit resolution corresponds to 214 (16384) output states. Additional constraints are imposed by the desire to fabricate such devices in conventional CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) processes without the need for additional masks, process steps, components or materials. At its most basic level, a “standard CMOS” process only requires that the process provide nMOS (n-channel MOSFETs) and pMOS (p− channel MOSFETs) transistors and conductive interconnect between and among them.
Some of the goals in fabricating such devices include low power dissipation, small die area, and compatibility with standard CMOS processing so that both digital and analog circuitry can exist on the same chip without modifying the fabrication process. Since it is desirable to be able to integrate such devices as part of system on a chip (SOC) integrated products, the latter goal is particularly important.
Current steering DACs are attractive for these applications because they are fast and can drive an output load without a voltage buffer. Their linearity, however, is limited by mismatch in the current-source transistors. This means that individual current-source transistors are difficult to fabricate so that they provide identical or perfectly scaled performance. Inherent imprecision in the fabrication process means that the performance of two near-identical transistors will only be able to be somewhat similar. To reduce the impact of this mismatch phenomenon, some mechanism is needed to match or average the performance of the current-source transistors so that they behave nearly ideally. In the past, designers have used several different mechanisms to achieve these goals. For example, laser-trimmable components, such as cermet or nichrome resistors, have been used to attempt to match the performance of transistors to an ideal. Large transistors have also been used to try to minimize mismatch. These approaches are undesirable because they increase the die area used by the DAC. Moreover, trimmable resistor components are undesirable because they take relatively large amounts of die area and require special processing steps not compatible with SOC integration. Randomized layouts have also been used as have architectures where plural transistors are used for each current steering element in order to average out performance differences among nearly identical transistors. Such intrinsic matching approaches generally require complicated layout techniques that usually result in a substantial adverse impact on die size and chip yield. Electrical trimming with on-chip capacitors has been used but requires continuous calibration of the current sources in the DAC because the calibration information held in the capacitors is continuously degrading due to leakage currents. Continuous calibration approaches are undesirable in general because they suffer from the effects of switching noise and require complicated circuitry to adjust current sources on the fly without impacting the performance of the DAC. Accordingly, it would be desirable to have an approach to transistor matching that combines the flexibility of electrical trimming with the dynamic stability of intrinsic matching.